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Are there any other "agnostic" types here who look at evolution as an extremely dubious theory?
just a vanity

Posted on 08/05/2008 4:13:42 PM PDT by big black dog

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To: Coyoteman
Brain complexity has increased tremendously over a short amount of time and is continuing to increase. The recent development of the C-section is allowing over-brainy babies and their mothers for the first time to survive child birth. C-sections may turn out to be a very significant change in human evolution.

I think it helps the conservative cause to come to terms with human evolution being war driven. It means that we are violent to the core and need personal firearms and large amounts of military spending. It means the hippie vision for world peace is a bong pipe dream. It means leftists are really out to destroy America and we should stop tolerating their destructive behavior.

It's time to leave the ivory tower. Human means war maker.

61 posted on 08/08/2008 5:52:13 PM PDT by Reeses (Leftism is powered by the evil force of envy.)
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To: Reeses
I find it funny how evolutionists dance around these holes with leaps of faith as strong as any religion.

I find it funny that creationists, when they want to condemn some part of the theory of evolution, compare it to religion and how religion functions.

(Actually I find it insulting. Science operates from evidence, while religion operates from belief and someone's personal interpretation of scripture or revelation. No evidence to be seen anywhere in that stuff!)

62 posted on 08/08/2008 5:54:24 PM PDT by Coyoteman (Religious belief does not constitute scientific evidence, nor does it convey scientific knowledge.)
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To: Coyoteman

I’m not a creationist if that’s what you’re thinking. But I do think creationists have a valid point that the current theory of natural selection doesn’t add up when applied to humans.


63 posted on 08/08/2008 5:56:58 PM PDT by Reeses (Leftism is powered by the evil force of envy.)
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To: Reeses
Brain complexity has increased tremendously over a short amount of time and is continuing to increase. The recent development of the C-section is allowing over-brainy babies and their mothers for the first time to survive child birth. C-sections may turn out to be a very significant change in human evolution.

That short time is over a million years, closer to two million. And its beginnings go back much earlier than that. Primates are brainier than most other critters.

As for the C-section, that is simply another bit of our technology, which started back with the first crude stone tools, fire, etc., that is allowing us to modify our natural environment. It is but the latest in a long string of innovations that have affected our surroundings (the environment) and hence the genome.

I think it helps the conservative cause to come to terms with human evolution being war driven. It means that we are violent to the core and need personal firearms and large amounts of military spending.

I don't agree entirely. I think that the past several million years of evolution have contributed a lot of changes to group cooperation. The problem has been lately that our technology has allowed us to develop war-making weapons quicker than cultural change can adapt.

It means the hippie vision for world peace is a bong pipe dream. It means leftists are really out to destroy America and we should stop tolerating their destructive behavior.

Leftists often have a distorted view of the world; they see things as they want them to be rather than how they really are.

But they have to be defeated in the world of ideas, not by warfare or violence.

64 posted on 08/08/2008 6:03:41 PM PDT by Coyoteman (Religious belief does not constitute scientific evidence, nor does it convey scientific knowledge.)
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To: Coyoteman

The USSR wasn’t defeated by ideas but by military spending. Most wars are started out of envy, the very same thing that drives leftism. Christ was nailed to the cross out of envy. His ideas didn’t help him counter that. We can keep leftism in check if we correctly understand their violent intentions. Evolution theory needs to be rounded out. The theory as it stands doesn’t come to terms with human evolution.


65 posted on 08/08/2008 6:19:27 PM PDT by Reeses (Leftism is powered by the evil force of envy.)
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To: Reeses
No, but the holes in the theory give people valid reason to reject it.

Post your holes.

Be sure to include your list of phenomena that are required to make evolution work that have not been observed. Feel free to follow up with your list of organisms that do not fit the dual nested hierarchy.

66 posted on 08/08/2008 6:55:05 PM PDT by js1138
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To: js1138
The holes are that natural selection does not explain the sudden high speed that humans evolved and why there are no variations on a theme alive today. The last variation, the Neaderthals, suddenly lost their ability to eat despite their high intelligence. What was the evolutionary pressure that drove humans to develop an intelligence far in excess of that needed to find food and shelter?

There are only about 10,000 generations between animal brain and modern human brain. Obviously this fast evolution was possible but not by natural selection alone, which normally leaves a string of viable variations. What mechanism killed the variations off with 100% precision?

67 posted on 08/08/2008 7:13:31 PM PDT by Reeses (Leftism is powered by the evil force of envy.)
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To: Reeses
The last variation, the Neaderthals, suddenly lost their ability to eat despite their high intelligence.

Interesting. How do you know they lost their abilityto eat? Do you have a citation in the scientific literature for this bit of information.

as for why cousin species are extinct. I don't know. Must be a miracle, like the miracles that killed off the dodos, the passenger pigeons, and which might kill off the rest of the great apes.

68 posted on 08/08/2008 7:21:14 PM PDT by js1138
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To: js1138
Occam’s Razor points to the Neanderthals being killed off in war with modern humans. What I find amazing is you will not read that explanation coming from academia, every bizarre theory but. I came to that realization myself. The Neanderthals were around for a much longer time than modern humans and continued evolving during that time. They were very smart and could build and use tools. They were spread out and had parallel fault tolerance. The only explanation that makes sense to me is we killed them off over a few generations in war. Just like we killed off all other competitors. We didn't completely wipe out the monkeys and apes because they were not significant competitors.

It's important to realize that humans are simply genetic optimizations for war making. We walk upright to enable us to carry and use weapons. Unlike all other animals we have lubricated armpits to wield weapons far longer than that needed to kill food. Tribes with elders, long past their breeding years, offered the advantage of wisdom to direct tribal wars to victory. We play sports to practice for war. Most human traits can be traced to the advantages they offer for success at war. Human means war maker. It's woven deeply into everything we are. Government policies can not suppress that.

A war making disposition may be a universal step for advanced intelligence to develop. That explains why we cannot detect other civilizations out there. They don't want to be detected, especially by us.

69 posted on 08/08/2008 7:48:15 PM PDT by Reeses (Leftism is powered by the evil force of envy.)
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To: Reeses
There are a few large holes in the natural selection theory. People reject the theory as it stands because in the case of humans it just doesn't add up. Something else was going on. I find it funny how evolutionists dance around these holes with leaps of faith as strong as any religion.

Why don't you address these "holes"

70 posted on 08/09/2008 3:02:33 AM PDT by Soliton (> 100)
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To: Reeses

What does speculation about the demise of Neanderthal have to do with the theory of evolution? I think you and I agree that species can be wiped out by competing species, so what point are you trying to make?


71 posted on 08/09/2008 12:32:37 PM PDT by js1138
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To: js1138
Natural selection cannot explain why precisely one branch of humanoids survived. If you think that tribal warfare is an ordinary trait of natural selection then the word natural applies to everything and has no meaning.

Creationists have a valid point that natural selection alone does not explain modern humans. Evolutionists confidence in their understanding rivals the leaps of faith that creationists make.

It's important to understand who humans really are and where we come from. It's important to politics such as gun control and funding our military. Evolution scientists are not explaining to the public the full story and creationists for now have a valid point in rejecting it.

72 posted on 08/09/2008 1:45:04 PM PDT by Reeses (Leftism is powered by the evil force of envy.)
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To: Reeses
Natural selection cannot explain why precisely one branch of humanoids survived. If you think that tribal warfare is an ordinary trait of natural selection then the word natural applies to everything and has no meaning.

Nonsense. First of all, natural selection and artificial selection (breeding) are the same physical process. That was the great insight made by Darwin. It makes no difference whether the culling of some traits is done with human interference or not. The biology is the same.

What you seem to be looking for is some way to look at an existing situation and predict the direction of change in a population. But that is precisely what the theory of evolution says is impossible, for the same reason that predicting weather far in advance is impossible.

73 posted on 08/09/2008 2:52:09 PM PDT by js1138
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To: js1138
natural selection and artificial selection (breeding) are the same physical process.

Except that one is natural and takes thousands of years to stumble upon success and one is man-made, a lot like the image of a God designing living things over a much shorter period of time. Natural means not man-made. The huge apples and oranges you see in the supermarket are not natural and are not the products of natural selection. And humans themselves are not natural but are the product of man-made warfare. It's as if humans were intelligently designed by a God. So the creationists have a valid point and the evolutionists have a flawed unworkable explanation of how we got here. Modern humans are not the result of natural selection.

74 posted on 08/09/2008 6:09:49 PM PDT by Reeses (Leftism is powered by the evil force of envy.)
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To: big black dog

It’s a shame that some atheists/agnostics use evolution as a tool to support their beliefs.

It’s also a shame that when a theory gets too difficult, they simply change the theory.

Now when they are asked why did some apes become humans, but some remained apes, they say that we all have a common ancester.

But yet, there is no proof of that, either.

And so, it goes, a waste of time and money by the taxpayers paying for public schools, govt. grants, etc..


75 posted on 08/09/2008 9:26:15 PM PDT by Sun (Pray that God sends us good leaders. Please say a prayer now.)
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To: Reeses
Except that one is natural and takes thousands of years to stumble upon success and one is man-made,...

You seem not to have grasped the concept. Natural selection and artificial selection (breeding) are the same physical process. There is no difference between natural and man-made except for the way we talk about it. Are you arguing that warfare is supernatural?

76 posted on 08/10/2008 6:34:07 AM PDT by js1138
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To: js1138
Are you arguing that warfare is supernatural?

No, man-made. Are you arguing that warfare is natural? Evolution claims that modern humans are the result of natural selection. I'm trying to point out that modern humans are not the product of a natural process. And the foods we like to eat are not naturally occurring. Until the evolutionists come around the creationists will have a valid point.

77 posted on 08/10/2008 7:12:12 AM PDT by Reeses (Leftism is powered by the evil force of envy.)
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To: Reeses
Are you arguing that warfare is natural?

Warfare is ubiquitous throughout the natural world. The phrase "nature, red in tooth and claw" dates from Darwin's time.

As for foods, are you suggesting that our favorite foods are produced by supernatural means? Is our food processing metaphysically different from what is done by leaf-cutter ants?

78 posted on 08/10/2008 7:26:26 AM PDT by js1138
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To: js1138
Warfare is ubiquitous throughout the natural world.

Then we'd better send WMD inspectors to check on what those deep sea dolphins are up to. I give up.

79 posted on 08/10/2008 7:50:25 AM PDT by Reeses (Leftism is powered by the evil force of envy.)
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To: Reeses

You never made clear whatever it is you are giving up.

The essential claim of evolution is common descent through the accumulation of small individual differences. Whether selection is the result of “natural” competetion or the result of an outside agency culling certain traits, makes no difference to the underlying biology.

Are you suggesting that human warfare is instigated by God or gods? The Greeks seemed to have believed this.


80 posted on 08/10/2008 8:02:06 AM PDT by js1138
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